LAHORE, Dec 7: A grand operation against encroachments in the localities under Lahore Development Authority’s control besides public utility areas in private housing schemes will be launched soon after Eidul Azha.

Comprising senior officers of the LDA and Water and Sanitation Agency’s wings concerned besides technical staff, a special squad had been constituted for the purpose.

An LDA spokesman told this reporter on Sunday that the operation was aimed at restoring the beauty of Lahore by removing illegal platforms, ramps, kiosks and hedges along streets and roads, demolishing encroachments on public utility lands like parks, schools, dispensaries, sewerage system and drains.

Appealing to citizens to demolish encroachments on their own, the spokesman warned that otherwise the LDA would raze illegal structures at the expense of the encroacher.

The operation would continue till retrieval of all the encroached land as the Punjab chief minister had already given a free hand to the LDA for the purpose, the spokesman added.